Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, one of two illegal immigrants from Venezuela charged with capital murder in the slaying of Houston 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, returned to court Wednesday, a day after her mother testified before a congressional committee about migrant crime.
The defense and Harris County prosecutors wrestled over the scope of a potential gag order in the case and Judge Josh Hill told them to abide by the state's rules of professional conduct.
Prosecutors also asked the judge to grant them access to all of Rangel's Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection records in a pair of court filings Tuesday. The defense had no objections, and the judge granted the request.
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Rangel and Franklin Pena were arrested in July on capital murder charges. Authorities said both suspects entered the U.S. illegally shortly before the slaying.
Prosecutors laid out the allegations bluntly in a bail request after the arrests.
"In this case, the defendant lured a 12-year-old under a bridge where he and his co-defendant remained with her for over 2 hours, took her pants off, tied her up, and killed her, then threw her body into the bayou," Assistant District Attorney Michael Abner wrote in June.
The arraignment comes a day after Nungaray's mother testified before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, calling on lawmakers to secure the border as she revealed a harrowing timeline of events.
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Jocelyn left her family's home to grab a late night soda when police say Rangel and Pena led her out of a convenience store. She never made it home.
"That Monday morning, June 17th, was terrifying," her mother told the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday. "Waking up to know your child was missing and frantically searching the area where her phone was being pinged just two minutes away from her home, driving up to that exact location to see crime scene tape and officers by a bridge."
At the scene, officers couldn't provide answers, she said. But 45 minutes later, she received a phone call from police asking her to come downtown.
"I'm still hanging on to hope that my 12-year-old daughter is still somewhere out there," she said. "They bring me to the floor labeled Homicide Division."
Nungaray told the committee Tuesday that the suspects threw her daughter off the bridge thinking the creek below would wash away their DNA.
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"Because of the Biden-Harris administration open border policies, catch and release, they were enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program," Nungaray told lawmakers. "This meant that they were released into the United States. It was not even a full three weeks later that they would take my daughter Jocelyn Nungaray’s life."
Rangel is due back in court on Nov. 11.
